


Explainable Coincidences

by NekoAbi



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Human AU, Teenager AU, Virgil gets very anxious, You can read Moceit but its also p platonic, he's very scared
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:47:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26408221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NekoAbi/pseuds/NekoAbi
Summary: Roman gets Remus to show him how to get around in the abandoned hotel near their home so he can get some photos. Neither of them expected to be joined that evening though...Basically a bunch of scooby doo "what was that!?" bullshit.
Kudos: 9





	Explainable Coincidences

“Hurry up already!” Roman hissed, eyes darting around cautiously. He was walking along the wire fence that surrounded the abandoned hotel with his twin brother a few steps behind, on the lookout for the broken portion that would allow them entry.

“Calm down, we’re not going to get caught.” Remus replied casually, his hand trailing along the fence, as casual as could be. “I told you, I’ve been here loads. Anyone who’d see us wouldn’t snitch.”

“Sure. Maybe not on you…” Roman muttered. He didn’t give Remus a chance to respond as he noticed their entrance to the hotel just a few short steps away. Roman rushed over and looked at the fence. It had clearly been intentionally broken, almost as if someone had cut the wire and then kicked it in to create a large enough gap for people to slip through.

“Admiring our work?” Remus asked, voice low and chilling right next to Roman’s ear. He cackled as his twin screeched in fear and jumped away several paces. Even as his brother started to whisper crude insults and bemoan the fact that someone could have heard them, Remus pushed on through the broken fence and waltzed across the over-grown grounds, looking utterly at home with his ragged appearance. He glanced behind, noting that his pristinely dressed twin – who was fighting to not catch any part of his outfit on the sharp edges – was completely out of his element here. Sure, it had been Roman’s idea to come here, but only Remus could do this with him. A sly grin crossed Remus’ face; he was in control here.

Roman finally managed to get himself through and he stalked towards Remus with a scowl before stopping just before his brother. They stood in silence for a few seconds, staring at each other before Remus raised his eyebrows questioningly. Roman rolled his eyes and cocked his hip, giving Remus a disapproving once-over, “Are you going to get us inside or what? I don’t want to be out here when it rains.” Remus went to talk back, but Roman managed to silence him with a pointed look, “Now. Remus.”

The more bedraggled of the two held his hands up in defeat and started heading around the side of the large hotel, before slipping through a door that was hanging off of its hinges. Remus waited just the other side as Roman cautiously entered behind him, “Normally, we’d go through the windows but you’re too soft for that, so I thought I’d be nice for once.” He could almost hear the rolling of his brother’s eyes before footsteps passed him by and Roman was taking the lead through the hallway. “Hey! Wait for me!” Remus jogged after him.

Unbeknownst to the brothers, they were not about to be alone in the building. Two more figures approached the locked gate at the front of the abandoned site, clearly also looking for entry. Well, one of them was.

“Virgil. This is pointless. There is no force that is making you do this.”

“No, L. For like the fiftieth time, I have to do this.” Virgil snapped, “You’re the one who didn’t have to come along.”

Logan sighed as Virgil started clambering up the side of the gate, using the wire fence for extra footholds. He waited until the emo was near the top before joining him in ascending the bars, “I am responsible for you, Virgil. Therefore, if you simply must do this, I must accompany you.”

Virgil, now on the ground on the other side of the fence, grinned, “You just wanted to come see this place. I know you did.”

“A completely unfounded and baseless claim.” Logan said, voice straining with the effort he was using in his climb. A snort had him sending a weak glare to his companion just before he managed to clamber over the highest bar and begin his descent. Logan’s grip slipped in his haste and he yelped loudly but managed to hold on enough to slide down to the ground. His cheeks flushed, Logan adjusted his glasses and pretended nothing had happened. “So, where shall we enter?”

Virgil, trying to hide his amused smile at Logan’s uncharacteristic loss of composure, pointed to a broken window on the lowest floor, “There looks good.”

“Let us go then. If we are quick, we should be able to be in and out before the rain starts.” Logan quickly made his way through the overgrowth with Virgil hot on his heels.

Inside, the twins had frozen in place. They’d made their way up to the third floor; where a few of the rooms were still partially furnished. Roman was in the middle of setting up his shot, while Remus rummaged around for whatever he could find that interested him. The loud yelp had been unexpected.

“Hey, uh, Rem?”

“Yeah?”

“This place… there’s, like, strays here… right?”

“Uh… sure? I guess? Yeah. Yeah, there must be.” Remus feigned confidence, going back to his scavenging.

Roman listened intensely for a few moments more, but only the wind and the general creaking of the building was there along with his twin’s movements. Slowly, he returned to his camera, hoping to get all the shots done quickly and get out of here already – though things just weren’t lining up quite right.

Back outside, two more figures were approaching the hotel at speed. The one in front threw themselves at the chained-up gate, almost desperately trying to open it, while the other was far more casual.

“Patton. Calm down. I’m sure they’re fine. I doubt Virgil even came here.” The second figure drawled.

“But he wasn’t at home! He must have come here, Jan!” Patton scrambled to climb the gate, but his upper body strength wasn’t enough to get him up. He fell to the ground, landing on his butt. “How do we get in?!” Patton’s lip was wobbling as he looked up towards his companion.

Janus only needed to glance at Patton’s sad expression for a moment before he knew this was already a losing battle. With a sigh and an adjustment of his hat, he gestured for Patton to follow him, “There are broken sections of fence around here.”

“Oh, that sounds dangerous and scary…” Patton’s voice quivered as he came up behind Janus, hand grasping onto his sleeve for comfort.

“It’s really not, so long as you’re careful. See, watch me.” They’d quickly come upon a way to pass through the fence. Patton very slowly let go of Janus and waited, shifting his weight nervously from foot to foot. With practiced motions, Janus threw his leg through the hole and ducked down, hand instinctively going to hold his hat in order to not lose it. He swung his body back up and pulled his other leg through, ending up standing on the opposite side without so much as a scratch. “Your turn.” He gestured to Patton, who approached looking scared.

Unlike Janus, Patton wasn’t able to move with much grace. He attempted the first movement several times, each time chickening out before actually getting his foot through the hole. After the eighth attempt, Janus couldn’t stand it any longer and offered Patton a hand. Janus felt that the extra help wasn’t entirely necessary, but since the other almost face-planted onto the ground after getting through the gap, he was re-evaluating his stance.

Patton dusted himself off and stood up straight once again, now looking up at the five floors of the hotel. “So, um… wh-where do we go in?” He was shaking.

Janus opened his mouth to tell Patton that he didn’t need to go in and look if he was that scared, but the determination in the other’s eyes stopped him. With a reluctant sigh, Janus started walking towards the building, leaving Patton to catch up once again. The broken doors had just come into view as they rounded the corner when a loud scraping sound had them both jumping, Patton’s grip tightening as he flattened himself against Janus’ back. Both of them slowly looked up to the building and then to each other, trying to gauge how much they really wanted to go in. Then a droplet of water fell on Patton’s cheek. The rain began pouring, almost immediately. The pair ran in as fast as they could.

“Oh, that is so much better!” Roman knelt down, taking a few shots of the rearranged room. He’d had Remus move some of the furniture around, since his twin wasn’t doing anything else worthwhile. “I’m honestly impressed how helpful you are.” Roman spoke absent-mindedly as he got back to his feet, looking through the pictures he’d gotten.

“Rude. Who got you here for your silly photography blog stuff?” Remus puffed out his chest, “You didn’t even know this cool place was here until I told you about it.”

“Until you got caught coming here and mom and dad told you off about it, you mean.” Roman corrected, walking back out into the corridor.

“Still all me, doesn’t matter about that. Now that you’ve done your boring bit, follow me to see the cool stuff!” Remus ran down to the end of the hallway, with Roman following shortly behind.

On the floor below, Virgil’s arms were wrapped around himself as he looked up to the thundering sounds above. He really didn’t want to come here, but he also wasn’t about to let Janus win this one. Sure, it had been a stupid dare, likely an off-hand snarky comment by the other, but Virgil was not going to let the asshole claim he was a scaredy cat any longer. “H-hey L? Wh.. what do you think that was?” The sounds had stopped.

“It sounded like footsteps to me.” Logan said simply, turning away from the faded painting he’d been trying to decipher for the last minute.

Virgil’s shoulders shot up in fear as he tensed. His voice dropped to a whisper, “Do you think there are other people here? What if they’re murderers or something and they wait here for idiot teenagers like us?!”

“Speak for yourself.” Logan gave Virgil an indignant look before returning to his usual stoic self. “I am confident there are no murderers waiting for ‘idiot teenagers’, Virgil. By my guess, it would likely be a stray dog of sorts that would be using this building as a shelter.”

“What if it’s rabid…” Virgil muttered under his breath.

Logan sighed, “I promise you, Virgil, we are most definitely safe from rabid animals. Come now, let’s get to the top floor and take the picture you feel you need.” Virgil nodded gently and slowly began to start walking down the hallway, following Logan closely out of fear. They were ascending the creaking stairs when they both heard a voice.

“Virgil?”

It echoed all around the empty stone walls. The voice was quiet and shaking. Logan prided himself in being a rational human being, but even he couldn’t shake the immediate idea that the voice had a ghost-like quality.

“Oh my god oh my god. I’m gonna die. I’m so dead. This place is haunted and wants me dead. Oh my god. I’m so _fucking_ dead, so absolutely fucking dead.” Virgil was shaking heavily, stuck in place on the step. His eyes were wide; pupils staring straight ahead as he dare not look around just in case the ghost calling his name just appeared in his vision.

The voice called out again, this time louder. Virgil, somehow, tensed even more, his body now rigid. Slow footsteps were approaching from below and tears of fear welled up from Virgil’s eyes. He couldn’t move. No matter how much his mind was screaming at him to run the fuck away, his muscles just wouldn’t listen. A quiet sob escaped him when the voice called out again.

Virgil was then suddenly off the ground. His immediate thought was that the ghost had caught him and was taking him down. But then he realised he was going upwards. In one stiff movement, Virgil turned to see Logan’s determined face to his right. The stone walls were almost bouncing up and down behind his head. Logan was carrying him up the stairs. He was saved. Virgil was safe. For now. He started to relax.

They burst loudly through the door to the top floor, breaking the last of the glass in the pane as it slammed against the wall.

A scream sounded from the stairs. Virgil tensed again. Fuck, he was so dead, and Logan was dying with him. Because of him.

Down at the first floor, Patton was clinging to Janus, shivering as he looked up to where the loud bang had sounded. “Wh-what… what was that?”

“Must have been the wind. Things like that happen all the time.” Janus lied confidently, though the clenching of his fists should have given him away. Thankfully, Patton was fairly oblivious.

“I don’t like this place.” Patton whined, “Let’s find Virgil and leave!”

Janus pondered for a moment, thinking about where their emo friend would have gone in a place like this. Considering all this happened because of Janus’ challenge, Virgil would likely want to go somewhere to prove he’d been here. The place immediately came to mind. “I know where he might be. Come on.”

“Okay…” Patton’s grip loosened slightly, but he still clung onto Janus’ sleeve. It made the trek up the stairs awkward and uncomfortable, as Janus’ arm was twisted behind himself. Even though they had the space, Patton seemed completely unwilling to walk alongside his friend. Janus considered stopping and talking with him about it but decided it would be best to just get their task done as Patton was clearly terrified of the abandoned hotel. Finally, after what felt like forever, they reached the landing of the top floor.

They hadn’t even taken more than a couple of steps past the broken door before a loud crack of lightning lit up the sky outside, followed very shortly by a loud rumble, and a very loud echo-y scream, and the sound of many things hitting the floor, then a high-pitched, witchy cackle. Patton squealed and buried his head against Janus’ back.

Janus paused. That cackle…

In one of the rooms around the corner, Roman groaned, holding his head. The lightning had been so unexpected, he’d stumbled back and fell against one of the old dressers in the room. It had pretty much entirely collapsed under his weight, so now he found himself in a pile of broken wood and rusty looking nails. Carefully, Roman got to his feet and checked on his camera, hoping to every god he could think of that it was unharmed. His parents would kill him if they knew. He ignored Remus practically crying with laughter on one of the well-worn couches.

It was thanks to his brother’s incredibly loud laughing that Roman didn’t hear the approaching footsteps from either side of the hallway. He stood and swatted at Remus’ arm, stopping the sound almost immediately as Remus then yelled out, “Hey!” in offence.

“Just be quiet. I need to fo-”

“Logan, why are you holding Virgil like a child?”

Roman stopped mid-sentence as another voice sounded outside the room. He turned his gaze to Remus who simply shrugged, though the fact his face was split into a wide grin told Roman that his disgusting brother was going to enjoy this opportunity. Everything was a blur. One moment, Roman had his camera in hand, the next, it was gone. Remus was already at the door, poking his head around in order to grab a picture of whatever was going on outside. It was only after the snapping sound of the camera going off that Roman’s brain caught up and he ran over to shove Remus aside.

“What is goi- Uh…” Roman, once again, couldn’t finish.

To his left, he saw Logan and Virgil. Logan was red-faced and his chest was heaving as though he’d just ran an entire marathon, while Virgil was tense and curled up in the other’s arms. To his right, Janus stood looking baffled and confused, a pair of legs visible just behind him with Roman could only assume to be Patton by process of elimination. Remus was now on the floor, face down in the dust and dirt, cackling away once again. Roman ignored him.

“What are you all doing here? And why is Logan carrying Virgil like that? And… is Patton hiding back there?” Roman asked in rapid succession. Logan was unable to answer as he was still breathing heavily and was clearly feeling the strain of holding the other teen in his arms, while Patton was still cowering away. That left only Janus who simply shrugged.

Roman sighed, “Look, come in here and chill out for a bit. Maybe we can figure it all out when they aren’t so… so…”

“Fucked!” Remus chimed in helpfully, still on the floor.

“Sure, why not.”

It took a lot of coaxing and promises of safety before Virgil was finally able to pry himself from Logan’s arms – who’d taken up the seat that Remus had previously occupied on the couch. Patton was still pressed tightly to Janus but was at least able to be seen now that he was beside him rather than behind. Once Virgil had fully regained the movement of his limbs and Patton was giggling at Remus’ odd jokes, the topic was brought up again.

“So, what are you doing here?”

Virgil immediately glared at Janus, “It’s all _his_ fault!”

“Me? I didn’t do a thing…” Janus drawled in response, avoiding Virgil’s gaze. He happened to catch Logan’s instead, which immediately scared him into speaking. “Okay, fine. I _may_ have challenged Virgil accidentally by… implying that he was, uh…”

“You called me chicken!”

“Ah, yes, I did.” Janus smiled, “But I didn’t expect he’d come here. Patton brought me along to come search for you, because he was just so worried.”

“You weren’t at home, mom and dad hadn’t seen you, so yeah… I got really worried!” Patton’s lip quivered, “But I didn’t expect it to be so scary…”

“Alright… but that doesn’t explain why Logan was carrying Virgil…” Roman pondered, “What was all that about?”

“We were crossing the hallway on the second floor when we heard footsteps above us. Virgil was quite shocked by the sound and became rather anxious. So, we began to walk up to this floor so Virgil could get a picture as proof. But then a rather… unfamiliar sounding voice called out to him and sent him into an extreme panic. I picked him up and ran up the stairs into the top floor, but I wasn’t sure which room we needed to go into.” Logan explained, still massaging his arms.

“IT WAS A GHOST, I SWEAR! It wanted to kill me! How else would it know my name?!” Virgil yelled, arms wrapping around himself once again as a protective shield.

“Wait, so you heard someone call your name? Where from?” Janus prompted, now interested.

“It was like… from below us in the stairs…”

Janus then chuckled lightly, “That was likely Patton. He and I were on the stairs when there was this loud crash from above us. I’m guessing that was you?”

Logan flushed, “I may have pushed the door with too much force and caused some of the glass to fall out, yes…”

“And I assume you screamed earlier?”

“I _do not_ scream.” Logan responded forcefully, his frustrated gaze boring deep into Janus.

Roman raised his hand, “That may have been me, actually. The lightning surprised me. Apologies…”

“Hey, that’s something. Why are you here?” Virgil pointed accusingly at Roman.

“Why only me?!” Roman responded indignantly.

“Because Remus basically lives here during the day.”

“I mean, he’s right.”

“Shut up, Remus!” Virgil and Roman spoke in unison.

Roman tossed his head back to get stray strands of his hair back into place, “If you must know, I came here for our art assignment. I was taking photos.” He held up the camera that he’d manged to snatch back from Remus sometime earlier.

Somehow, this started Virgil off on how the place was an absolute dump and not even worth a decent grade. Roman took offense, as did Remus and Janus. It turned into a shouting match between them all, with each of them changing sides multiple times to make it a confused mess. Logan rubbed his temples as he was starting to get a headache. He glanced out of the window and noticed that the rain had stopped. With an impossibly loud shout, he got the attention of everyone in the room.

“Shall we leave? I think we’ve all had enough of this place for today.” Logan huffed, clearly annoying. Immediately, everyone agreed, and they started to file out of the hotel. No one wanted to start a fight when Logan was like this. It was only once they were outside of the fence when someone spoke up again.

“So… that place isn’t haunted then?” Patton asked innocently.

Remus cackled and turned, walking backwards so he could look Patton directly in the eyes, “Oh, it’s definitely haunted. Wanna come back and see the ghost another day?”

“Remus.” Janus chided as Patton grabbed a hold of his arm for the umpteenth time that evening.

“What? I’m being serious!”


End file.
